Escambia High wide receiver Jacob Copeland, one of the nation's most sought-after wide receiver recruits in the Class of 2018, committed to the University of Florida on Wednesday night in a video released to SEC Country.

Copeland, 6-foot and 192 pounds, played his first three seasons at Pine Forest High before transferring to Escambia. He's a four-star recruit according to the 247Sports composite, the No. 9 wide receiver in the country and the No. 52 recruit in the nation.

He chose the Gators over Alabama and Florida State, but held over 30 Division I scholarship offers.

In the video, Copeland talked about the environment he grew up in and what he had to overcome to get to this point and goes to his childhood home, where the windows are riddled with bullet holes.

"Where I grew up ... it was a hellhole, shootouts every night," Copeland said on the video. "What we called it was the trenches ... growing up around here, it was crazy."

Copeland had 25 catches for 516 yards and five touchdowns to go with 32 carries for 315 yards and three touchdowns last season. In three seasons at Pine Forest, he had 2,389 all-purpose yards and 22 touchdowns.